


In Another Robot's Gears

by meefling



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-11
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 23:44:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meefling/pseuds/meefling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Michael, I need upgrades. Now."<br/>"Uh--Rabbit, I thought you--"<br/>"Don't you dare, The Spine! I want to stay that way!"<br/>"What... that's Rabbit..."<br/>"I... I'm The Spine?"<br/>"No, you're--I mean yeah, you are The--"<br/>"Michael, those upgrades please."<br/>"No! I want to keep what Pappy gave me!"<br/>"I am The Spine... I /am/ The Spine..."<br/>"Okay, what happened to all of you?!"</p><p>Slightly altered version to accommodate all audiences. Original from my post a long time ago on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Michael, I need upgrades. Now."

"Uh--Rabbit, I thought you--"

"Don't you dare, The Spine! I want to stay that way!"

"What... that's Rabbit..."

"I... I'm The Spine?"

"No, you're--I mean yeah, you are The--"

"Michael, those upgrades please."

"No! I want to keep what Pappy gave me!"

"I am The Spine... I /am/ The Spine..."

"Okay, what happened to all of you?!"

Earlier that same day...

It was morning in Walter Manor. It was morning in a lot of other places too, but this morning was spent in Walter Manor. Things went as usual in the mansion that morning.

Rabbit was drawing swirls everywhere around the place among other various odd drawings. So far he'd drawn toasters, toast, bagels, bread, waffles, poptarts, toast, and other things that you can stick into a toaster--ahem. Michael was close behind him, taking note of everywhere that was drawn on so he and maybe some others could clean it up later.

The Spine was writing. He wasn't writing music like you'd expect, but he was writing. And what was it he was writing? Well, he was writing a story. A story in which a brave sea captain had his misadventures all through his life. Matt was standing beside him, looking over his shoulder and reading the story. He figured he might as well, to better understand the robots and all.

Hatchworth was making sandwiches for the humans. Who else would he make them for? Robots don't eat, or at least they don't need to eat to sustain themselves. He counted: 1, 2, 3... 4... 5... 6... Okay, each human would get two sandwiches that day. He felt rather happy that day anyways.

Yes, things were all normal in the Manor that morning.

Hatchworth finished cleaning up his ingredients and placed the plated sandwiches carefully into his hatch. He closed the door. Hatchworth walked out of the kitchen in search of the humans. In the hallway, he saw Steve, who had his earphones in and was listening to music. Therefore, no words were exchanged as he received his sandwich.

As Hatchworth continued down the hallway, he realized he forgot to give Steve the second sandwich. So he took it out of his chest and ate it, then he carried on.

Also in the hallway, he bumped--literally--into a certain copper robot.

"Oh hi-hi-hi-hi, Hatchworth!" Rabbit chirped happily, smiling at the other automaton before turning to the wall and drawing a large swirl with a silver sharpie that he stole from The Spine. It showed up rather nicely against the pinkish walls.

"Hi Rabbit." Hatchworth responded. He took note of Michael following Rabbit. "Mr. Reed." he greeted. The human looked at him and nodded, then studied his map of the Manor and circled their current location to signify another place Rabbit had drawn. "Would you like a sandwich, Mr. Reed?" Hatchworth reached into his chest to grab a plate.

Once the sandwich was out of his chest, Rabbit reached right behind himself and grabbed it from him. He ate it (and the plate) in one bite. Hatchworth simply took out another sandwich and handed it to Michael.

"Thanks, Hatch," he said offhandedly as Rabbit wandered away. He took a bite of the sandwich as he walked to catch up with him.  
Hatchworth moved on to the H.O.W. Once there, he knocked on the door.

The door automatically opened outward, so he had to step aside, before he walked right inside. The door behind him shut and the entire room glowed red, the dark silhouettes of wires giving the room an eerie feeling. He encountered QWERTY right away, who guided him through the wire maze once he'd been identified. Hatchworth didn't know his way around the place that well yet, so as long as QWERTY was there, he could be guided as he learned the directions in the large room.

As QWERTY lead him, he thought about his journey so far. Steve, Michael, Rabbit and himself had gotten sandwiches. He may as well offer The Spine a sandwich as well.

QWERTY jerked once in the direction of The Spine and then disappeared up into the 'ceiling'. Hatchworth made his way to the automaton sitting at the desk, pulling a sandwich from his chest as he did so. He turned to Matt.

"Hello Matt. Would you like a sandwich?" he offered. Matt nodded, smiling.

"Sure, Hatchworth." he replied, carefully taking the plate from Hatchworth's hands. The robot then turned to The Spine and pulled another sandwich from his hatch.

"Would you like one too, The Spine?" he offered. The Spine stopped writing and turned, studying the sandwich before taking it.

"Yes. Thank you, Hatchworth." he said, smiling as well. Hatchworth quickly turned around at that.

"Yes well, I must be going." he said as he closed his hatch and walked away. QWERTY lowered again to lead him out of the room.

"Y R U :)" she asked. Hatchworth blinked at her screen.

"The Spine." he replied vaguely, yet honestly. QWERTY lol'd.

OoOoO

(the following scenes happen at the same time, but for convenience and zero chance of confusion, I have written them out separately. Just pretend they happened simultaneously. c: )

Later that afternoon, Rabbit had finished his drawings and was sitting in the bottom floor common room, on the ground, cross-legged and rocking back and forth and moaning softly, his gears clicking loudly.

Steve was also in the room, and Rabbit's noises began to bug him. Even if he tapped on random surfaces around him to the beat, he still heard Rabbit's clicking out of time with the music he was listening to. He paused the track and looked at Rabbit, curious and a little bit annoyed.

"Yo Rabbit," he asked. Rabbit looked over at him, 'eyes' opened as much as they could go. He hummed softly. "What's with that ticking?" Rabbit hummed again and continued to rock back and forth.

"I-I think there's somethin' wrong with my-my-my... Honeybee--eh, I mean, my Wi-Fi." he stated. "I feel funny. Not myself."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked an ever-so-cliché question.

"I-I-I-I mean--" he cut himself off when his vision cut out. "I can't see, Steve," he remarked just before his vision returned and he was faced with Michael Reed.

He was turned to the wall of the hallway Rabbit had suddenly appeared in and rubbed the damp cloth in his hand against the pink wall.

Against one of his drawings of a certain love interest.

"HEY!" he shouted, reaching out and grabbing the cloth out of Michael's hands. "That's my Jenny, what are you--" Rabbit stopped and looked at the cloth in his hands. Actually, he looked at his hands, not the cloth he had in them. He slowly glared at Michael. "Did you upgrade me just now?" he asked in a venomous tone... or tried... somehow the words came out monotone.

"I-I beg your pardon?" Michael stared at Rabbit, then shook his head and sighed. "No, I didn't. But at the rate you're losing it..."

"I am not!" Rabbit protested. He threw the cloth at Michael's face and crossed his arms stubbornly. The human removed the cloth from his face and grabbed Rabbit's weird hand.

"Gotta go find Matt, he was with you last."

OoOoO

"It's obvious that my time has come. I'll let this ending ensue... I've led an exciting nautical life, it would seem, and there's no better end than a death by the sea."

"Wow, that's quite the speech. I mean, for a drowning man."

"Yes Matt, yes it is." The Spine said as he hummed the tune of which the quote came in his head. He was cut off by a strange signal he received from an unknown party over the Walter Wi-Fi. "Matt, I know you're new, but I have a problem."

"Yeah? What's that?" Matt asked. He was fairly new, but he was up for the challenge.

"My Wi-Fi appears to be malfunctioning. I'm getting some weird signals from an unknown user." he reported. He stood up just as Matt was about to speak. Not wanting to interrupt something, he stayed silent. After a second or two, The Spine sat back down. Matt decided it was safe to speak.

"Is there some other robot around?" he asked. The Spine shook his head.

"Not as far as I know," he replied. "The newest robot I know of is Hatchworth... and he's already..." he slowly drifted off slowly as the signal overpowered his hearing and his vision. He was still for a few moments before his vision returned and he found himself sitting on the ground in one of the common rooms. It took him a moment to realize it was the main floor common room.

"Are your photoreceptors leaving you?" a voice recognized right away as Steve spoke. "Michael can upgrade those for you." The Spine looked over, and stood up off the ground again, simply staring at Steve.

"Matt--... Steeeeeve?" he asked, then immediately took a step away, bringing a hand to his chest. That was not his voice, and the clicking in his chest, although not clearly audible to humans, was far too loud to be coming from him. "Did you mess with my-my-my-y-y...?" he looked down at his hand and froze up, then he turned and promptly left the room.

Steve shrugged and pressed play once more on his iPod.

OoOoO

Hatchworth spent his afternoon like no other; looking for things to do. He found himself eventually helping Michael wash off Rabbit's doodles from before. For the most part, human and automaton were silent. Hatchworth started to hum the tune to his theme song, as he personally dubbed it. After a moment, Mr. Reed joined in humming his part.

"Hey Mr. Reed," Hatchworth asked. Michael looked over. "Do you think I can write more songs? You know, for the third album." the human nodded.

"Yeah, no problem," he replied, focusing on the wall in front of him once again. "You have musical talent that's appreciated by the band, and especially the fans out there." Although Hatchworth didn't catch some pieces of that sentence, as his hearing kept cracking in and out again. He got some weird error reports over the Wi-Fi.

"Mr. Reed, my Wi-Fi is acting up again." Hatchworth stated, bringing his free hand to his head and tapping on it gently. Michael looked at Hatchworth again.

"Really? I thought I cleaned up that bug... Is it serious?"

"No no, nothing too bad. I will tell you if it does get worse, though, Mr. Reed."

"Okay, if you insist." Michael said. He never wanted to pressure the robots too much, and Hatchworth was still relatively new. He hadn't grown up with him, and therefore didn't know them as well as he'd known Rabbit, The Spine, The Jon, and even Upgrade.

Mr. Reed didn't notice when Hatchworth's vision cut out and he stopped cleaning his spot on the wall. Hatchworth just rubbed the cloth against the wall to make it seem as if he could still see, and all at once he found himself in a completely different place, once his vision had returned.

"... and he's already...?" somebody said to his left. Hatchworth took a moment to identify the voice as Matt's. He slowly turned, oddly fluidly, to his left to find the other new band member looking at him as if prompting him to go on with a sentence he was saying.

But he wasn't saying anything before. He wasn't even in this room.

"Uh, Matt." he said in a very deep voice. His power core pulsed wildly, as he knew the voice right away was The Spine's. Now this was an odd turn of events. He stood from his chair and turned to Matt, his photoreceptors glowing brightly.

"Do you know the way out?" he asked. Matt blinked and pointed up at Hatchworth in return.

"No, I thought you knew?" he asked, casually. Although, there was a tinge of worry in his voice. Hatchworth decided to try something.

"QWERTY," he called out. A moment passed of silence save for The Spine's echoing voice, before a familiar computer lowered from the ceiling.

"Hi Hatch" she said, monotone and robotic like usual. There was a smile on the screen. Matt looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't.

"Can you..." he didn't even finish before QWERTY moved right over his head and down the hall made up of wires, leading both human and robot out of the large, glowing red room.

TO BE CONTINUED MAYBE... IF ANYONE LIKES IT...


	2. Chapter 2

Rabbit! WHY AM I YOU?

Don't ask me, I'm totally Hatchworth!

Hey guys, uh, am I the Spine now?

Hatch--no, I'm the Spine, but I believe you are me physically.

We should meet to figure this out.

Oh, okay. Rabbit, where are you?

Michael's taking me to the H.O.W., maybe meet you two there?

Oh, I'm already there, with Matt.

Good... I'm on my way, Rabbit!

Okay, see ya there then!

OoOoO

Rabbit!

Rabbit blinked, stopping for a second and halting Michael in his tracks as well. He listened over Wi-Fi for another call of his name, from his own voice. WHY AM I YOU?

He sounded panicked. It was weird to hear his own voice asking why he was himself, and he knew for certain it wasn't him. He could tell because even though this voice connected to Wi-Fi had his accent, the tone used was very much not something he'd use. It sounded more like a certain the Spine.

Don't ask me! He responded, puffing steam as Michael started to pull him along again, grumbling and annoyed. I'm totally Hatchworth! Rabbit wasn't that stupid. He'd figured out the whole thing when he detected the other two robots over the wireless.

Hey guys, uh, am I the Spine now? The Spine's normally low, confident voice had raised slightly in pitch and sounded quieter than before. Further confirming Rabbit's calculations.

Hatch--no, I'm the Spine, but I believe you are me physically. The Spine spoke in Rabbit's voice again, and he knew he couldn't help it but it sounded so creepy!

We should meet to figure this out. Rabbit suggested. Clearly, this was a problem that needed solving in person.

Oh, okay. Rabbit, where are you? his own voice spoke again. Rabbit spat a small bit of steam, making Michael glance somewhat worriedly at him and pulling him along faster.

Michael's taking me to the H.O.W., maybe meet you two there? Rabbit offered.

Oh, I'm already there, with Matt. The Spine's timid voice--Hatchworth, rang out again. Rabbit nodded. Michael didn't notice.

Good... I'm on my way, Rabbit! His own voice spoke--The Spine spoke.

Okay, see ya there then! Rabbit said, trying to find his own accent in Hatchworth's speak-and-spell voice.

For another minute, he allowed Michael to pull him down the hallway. He looked around, whimpering only a little at the blank spaces on the wall that he had clearly drawn on before. Michael just muttered to himself.

When Rabbit looked ahead next, he saw that the Spine had already made it to the door of his 'room'. Hatchworth wasn't out yet. By the time the Spine noticed they were arriving, the door to the H.O.W. opened and Hatchworth stepped out, seeming a little clumsy in such a tall body. Matt followed behind him, thanking QWERTY behind him and shutting the door.

"Hey you guys!" Rabbit said, waving an arm. Hatchworth literally flinched and looked with wide green optics towards him. The Spine just glanced over before he chose to examine Rabbit's chest, now that he had a moment. Now to do that, he had to remove the vest and remove the shirt. He started with the vest.

"Uh, hi, Rabbit," Hatchworth replied shyly, waving a hand. Michael stopped dead in his tracks and looked back at Rabbit, then up at Hatchworth.

"You okay, buddy? Rabbit's beside you, this is Hatchworth." he pointed out, obviously. Hatchworth straightened up and looked down at the one man band. He wasn't used to it at all. Looking down, that is.

"Er, right, Hatchworth..." his own name spoken in such a way with the Spine's voice sent electric sparks running up and down his titanium alloy spine. It was his for now, wasn't it? Belonged to him... The Spine's body...

But Hatchworth had already slipped up, and was now allowing Michael to check out his memory by asking questions. He heard the Spine answering them for Hatchworth over wireless before Hatchworth repeated them out loud. How complicated. Rabbit smirked and added another ball for the Spine to juggle.

"Hey um, what are you doing there, 'Rabbit'?" he asked the Spine, who looked up from his work on the vest. Those red buttons, there were a lot of them.

"Oh no-nothing," the Spine replied and frowned. He cursed softly under his steam and Rabbit didn't even have to wonder why. The Spine slipped Rabbit's vest off and realized he still had 3 belts and a pair of suspenders to undo, and another shirt. He set to work on the belts.

"I don't think you should take your clothes off while the humans are still here," Rabbit said, still smirking. That smirk on Hatchworth's face seemed to fit somehow, and the Spine wasn't sure why. He undid all 3 belts as he spoke his reply.

"But Mr. Reed has seen me unclothed so many times," the Spine said offhandedly. His slightly clumsy fingers worked on the suspenders now. "What's one-one-one more time?" his fingers froze up for a moment on the second suspender before he could move them again. Rabbit winced before settling for a more neutral expression. He could clearly see he wasn't in good shape, now that he had a live view of his body from another's eyes.

"But what about Matt?" he asked, keeping the conversation going. Michael had stopped questioning Hatchworth, and was now organizing a time with him to fix his abrupt nerves that had kicked in. "It's rude."

"He'll see sooner or la-later," the Spine replied distractedly. He finished with the suspenders and gently pushed his pants down to his hips instead of right up at his chest. He worked on unbuttoning the shirt. It suddenly occurred to the other robot what he was doing.

"Rabbit." Rabbit said sternly, walking towards the robot. The Spine didn't look up, but hummed in acknowledgement. "I suggest you get dressed right now," he could tell he was breaking character a little bit.

"N-n-n-no, I need ta check somethin'." The Spine replied, looking up at Rabbit with glowing photoreceptors under his goggled hat, before looking down again, opening the last of the buttons and pulling the shirt open. He gasped slightly at what he saw.

Rabbit's copper chest wasn't a new sight, but the new oxidized look it had gotten was. Rabbit didn't usually run around the house naked like he used to. Technically speaking, the robots didn't need clothes, because, well...

The Spine chose to wear clothing for comfort reasons, when he wasn't up in the wires out of his body, which was most of the time. Hatchworth wore clothes because he just didn't feel it was polite to be frolicking around in the nude like the Jon used to happily do. But Rabbit... Rabbit wore clothes for reasons the Spine hadn't known until now. He was hiding his degradation with the clothes.

The Spine whipped his head over to Michael.

"Michael, I need upgrades." he requested firmly. Not only was he uncomfortable in a run-down body like Rabbit's, but he knew his brother needed the upgrades badly. "Now." he reinforced. Rabbit suddenly took on a kind of battle stance, growling.

Michael looked over at the call of his name, and the mention of upgrades coming from Rabbit's lips. His jaw dropped and he rushed over, confused. "Uh--Rabbit, I thought you--"

"Don't you dare, The Spine!" Rabbit snarled. Michael turned to the automaton, shocked. "I want to stay that way!" he looked about ready to pounce on the Spine and power him down.

"What... that's Rabbit..." Michael could only mutter, confused as all Hell.

Hatchworth took a good, long look at the Spine. Then looked at Rabbit. He blanched for a second, seeing himself and 'Rabbit' over there. He brought a hand up to his face, staring at it and the faint green glow that reflected off of the gloved hand.

"I... I'm The Spine?" he finally said, everything catching up with him. He knew he was the Spine for now, but he hadn't come to terms with it yet. Seeing himself over there, he fully confirmed it for the first time and just stared with wonder at his hand. He was mesmerized.

"No, you're--I mean yeah," Michael spun around frantically, looking at Hatchworth. He started to sweat with worry. "You are The--"

"Michael," the Spine snapped. Michael spun back around on his heel. "Those upgrades please." he requested again, fully taking Rabbit's shirt off and tossing it to the ground along with the belts. The suspenders just hung loose from his pants. Rabbit growled again and leapt forward, grabbing the Spine's shoulders.

"No!" he protested loudly, shaking the Spine's shoulders gently but firmly and a little threateningly. The Spine actually shrunk away a little. Angry Hatchworth looked quite scary... "I want to keep what Pappy gave me!" he begged.

"I am The Spine..." Hatchworth only muttered under his breath. Michael kept glancing back and forth from the fight to Hatchworth, fighting with himself over who to tend to first. "I am The Spine..."

"Okay," Matt suddenly yelled. "What happened to all of you?!" Rabbit stopped shaking the Spine, who was now shaking gently in fear. His face remained confident and serious though, despite his reaction. Rabbit looked at Matt in shock. Hatchworth snapped out of his daydreaming of what he'd do while in the Spine's body, and whipped his head to the side to stare at Matt with fearfully glowing green eyes.

Matt took a deep breath. "I know I haven't known you all that long," he said. "But you're all acting completely over the edge crazy. I know that's the Spine," he pointed to Hatchworth. "That's Rabbit," he pointed to the Spine. "and that's Hatchworth," he pointed to Rabbit. "Now unless I'm mistaken, I'd love an explanation!" he crossed his arms, looking at them all expectantly.

Michael gaped at him like a fish out of water. This guy was a keeper.

OoOoO

"Well," Michael began, looking from robot to robot.

After Rabbit dressed the Spine (slightly by force because the Spine kept locking up. He couldn't yet control Rabbit's mechanisms and their ticks. The Spine also made a bargain to keep the belts and vest off.) Rabbit had immediately taken to sitting on the floor, his legs crossed as he kept taking off and putting back on Hatchworth's glasses, in amazement with how they aided these photoreceptors' sight.

Matt stood right beside him, glancing down at him between their talking. The Spine was sitting straight-up on a couch, hands neatly folded in his lap. He would twitch and growl slightly every moment or two. Despite physically being Rabbit, he looked completely different from the older robot. Hatchworth sat to the left of the Spine, knees pressed together and hands resting on them. He looked very timid and nervous, which didn't suit the normally so serious robot. Michael sat to the right of the Spine.

"I think there's a malfunction gone terribly wrong here. Does anybody know how this could have happened?" Hatchworth fidgeted nervously, looking down at his balled fists on his knees.

"I um, would it have anything to do with my sandwiches?" he asked in a small voice. Michael began to think, but the Spine beat him to it.

"Hatchworth, we all-all-all ate one of your sandwiches to-today," he said, sighing softly in disappointment at his uncontrollable stutter. "That’s mossssst li-likely the caaause, an’ th’ thing we a-a-all did most simil-si-similarly to each other t-to-tooooday." Matt gave him a surprised look.

“Wow, talk about power of deduction.” He murmured, and Hatchworth laughed a bit with a shy smile. He looked over at the Spine then, frowning again.

“So this is my fault?” he asked, placing his hand over his boiler even though it technically wasn’t his, nor was it a sandwich void currently.

“Well yeah,” The Spine replied, looking up at him. “But—but don’t worry ‘bout it, w-wwwe couldn’t a’ st-stopped it a-a-anyways!” Hatchworth whimpered softly and looked down at his hands on his knees. Rabbit sighed and got to his feet, stumbling over and patting Hatchy’s shoulder.

“Hey, it’s fine, you know!” he stated with a wide grin, oddly fitting for Hatchworth’s face. “Think of all the things you’ll find out about the Spine that no one else but him knows!” The Spine’s blood would’ve run cold had he been organic.

“N-nnnoo-no, please don’t.” he pleaded quietly, and Hatchworth couldn’t help but smile a little.

“I think you should check out his… ‘bonus features’.” Rabbit winked. Michael blushed at the suggestiveness in his tone and Matt laughed nervously as the Spine blew off some steam, his cheek vents rattling a little.

“I-I don’t h-haaaaave an-n-n-ny ‘bonus fea-eatures’!” he insisted with a frown. Rabbit only continued to tease.

“I wonder what you have in your secret room?~” he mused with a smirk, tapping a finger against his chin. The Spine crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

“As long a-a-a-as Hatchy’s in-in thaaaat—my cha-ccchhassis,” the Spine mock-cleared his throat before continuing. “He ain’t a-allowed in-in-inta any o’ m-my secret r-rooorrooms—GOSH D-DARN THI-THI-THIS STU-STUTTA!” he cried out.

Hatchworth began to giggle, which stopped their ‘conversation’ short. Rabbit and the Spine, and even the humans present, looked at him as he laughed, and they ended up smiling and laughing a little as well. Albeit, it was a little odd to see ‘the Spine’ in such a giddy, cheery state like this, but it didn’t really matter much anymore.

Everything was fine.


End file.
